The Morning Heresy 6/18/12: Let’s Get it Aan

June 18, 2012

Over the weekend, CFI roundly condemned the blasphemy conviction of atheist Alexander Aan in Indonesia, and is organizing a protest for his freedom outside the Indonesian embassy in Washington at 2pm. Details are here. If you're in the area, show the Indonesian authorities -- and Alex -- that we demand his freedom, and that we are paying attention.

Freedom of religion is technically guaranteed in the world’s most-populous Muslim nation, but Indonesians must adhere to one of the six official religions. Atheism is not a sanctioned option.

Uh oh. Council chief Tom Flynn blogs on our imminent doom as we procreate and eat ourselves to death:

I've often written in Free Inquiry (too often, some would say) of the need to get serious about not just slowing population growth, but working toward some plan to significantly reduce human numbers over the next several generations. Reports like these make me hope it's not already too late.

We'll probably see some stabilisation of the global population in a few decades, but meanwhile a lot of further damage could be done. There's a limit to what can be achieved here, and some of it will have to involve steps to bring down the environmental impact per person in an industrialised country. Unfortunately, there's little political will to achieve this - or so it appears from the pathetic outcomes of negotiations on how to address global warming.

Look carefully at the survey question. What this data is tracking is the percentage of young people for whom doubt has never creeped into their faith. I don’t know about you, but most of the religious people I know experience both doubt and faith over the course of their spiritual lives. So the fact that more than two-thirds of young people say they have never doubted God’s existence seems to me evidence of America's extraordinary religiosity, not its disbelief.

AFP: Mob in Pakistan attacks a police station and riots in order to get at a man who may or may not have burned a Koran (1 dead, 19 wounded)

Oh, Alabama. Rob Boston blogs on the state's PBS station's (!!!) firing of employees who didn't want to air things that are not true

Lawrence Krauss in Slate on the implications of decreasing funding for fundamental science

The imprisonment of Alexander Aan for incitement is a serious setback for freedom of expression in Indonesia, and violates Indonesia’s obligations under international law. Amnesty considers him to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.

Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI . Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.

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Paul Fidalgo has been communications director of the Center for Inquiry since 2012. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and has worked previously for FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy and the Secular Coalition for America. Paul is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center. He lives in Maine with his wife and kids. His blog at the Patheos network is iMortal, and he tweets at @paulfidalgo.